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Allayn Magwair
'''Allayn Magwair '''was a Vicar of the Church of God Awaiting as well as the Captain General of the Temple Guard. As with all members of the Council of Vicars, he was also a Knight of the Temple Lands. Magwair was a member of the Group of Four; his participation enabled that cabal of prelates direct control over the Temple military, though Magwair himself was largely a subordinate to his more ambitious and intelligent colleagues. __TOC__ Physical Appearance Magwair was largely representative of Temple Guard officers in that he was a physically fit priest-soldier of the sub-Order of the Sword in the Order of Chihiro. Like other Vicars he wore an orange cassock and priest's cap, his sleeve baring the badge of the Order of Chihiro's quill signet with a sword accompaniment. Biography Magwair ascended to the Vicarate some time before the Year of God 890. It was implied that he had attained his high office in the Guard due to his personal connections and willingness to play along with Temple politics. This history reflected on his status within the Group of Four. Magwair rarely proposed new ideas or plans except on matters strictly pertaining to the operations of the Temple Guard, and even when he conjured genuinely novel concepts on that subject, it was to the usual surprise of his colleagues. Magwair was nonetheless inclined to take a conservative approach to the issues the Group of Four faced, and thus became a reliable supporter of Grand Inquisitor Zhaspahr Clyntahn. When the Group of Four decided to back Clyntahn's plan to destroy Charis, Magwair eagerly anticipated the opportunity to command the forces directed to assemble by Chancellor Zahmsyn Trynair. However, as he was only a marginally capable strategist, and had no experience with naval warfare whatsoever, he planned the operation poorly, allowing Charis to locate his fleets in isolation, after they had suffered severe exposure to the elements, and annihilate them. ( ) After the Church of Charis declared a Schism between itself and the Temple, Magwair set to rebuilding the Temple-aligned Naval forces under the Church's own banner and that of closely Temple-aligned realms like Harchong, Dohlar, and Desnair. Due to the Admiral's disgrace over the losses at Rock Point and Crag Reach, he ignored reports from the Earl of Thirsk concerning the massive advantages that the new model galleon-based fleet Charis possessed conferred, and the project focused instead on building old-style galleys. ( ) After Charis invaded Corisande, Clyntahn informed the rest of the Group of Four that Inquisition intelligence had determined that galleons were indeed the ship that needed to be built, and that galleys were effectively worthless. Magwair's building projects had to be scrapped at the expense of all of the time and money that they had consumed. However, due to the Temple's considerable resources and willingness to devote whatever it took to destroy Charis, galleons were constructed at a very rapid rate despite Charisian privateer interference. ( ) Magwair supported Clyntahn's purge of the Council of Vicars in Year of God 894 whole-heartedly and put the Temple Guard at the Inquisition's disposal during the mass arrests and executions, which in part targeted Magwair's rival in the Temple Guard, Vicar Hauwerd Wylsynn and resulted in a fight to the death between Wylsynn and the Guard. The Group of Four's cohesion began to be compromised as he and Clyntahn developed a tense adversarial relationship with Treasurer General Rhobair Duchairn and Trynair to a lesser extent. Duchairn produced a rare moment of creativity and intellect when he proposed that the Navy of God with the mostly unarmed Harchongese detachment be given orders to sail to Dohlar via Semaphore as a feint. At the last moment, the fleet's real orders for the Gulf of Tarot and Desnair were handed out. Though the Group of Four had no understanding of the massive advantages conferred onto Charisian intelligence by Merlin Athrawes, the tactic managed to fool even Merlin himself. He had assumed that the most strategically sensible decision would be made; sailing to Dohlar to put the fleet under Thirsk's command, as the Earl was the Church's most capable admiral and the only commander with any successful experience against Charis at sea. As a result, Charis was forced to challenge the Temple fleet in the Gulf of Tarot with a divided emergency force of only 25 galleons, against more than 100 Temple ships. A pitched battle was fought, and Charis nearly lost, but the employment of explosive shells, never before used in combat, caused the Temple fleet to surrender in total defeat. This massive loss effectively destroyed the Navy of God and severely set back the Temple's naval progress. Once again Magwair was confronted with a new Charisian weapon that he would have to match to have any hope of contesting Charisian maritime domination. ( ) Magwair and the Temple Guard were later berated by Clyntahn for the defeat, though Clyntahn let on that he had some idea of what had allowed the Charisians to achieve such a decisive victory. ( ) References Maigwair, Allayn Maigwair, Allayn Maigwair, Allayn